Here at WeAquatics, we take great pride in working with the very best swim instructors in the DMV area, or the DC, Virginia, and Maryland regions. Anyone who has worked with our talented staff knows our instructors to be supportive, fun, knowledgeable, excited, and challenging, but we’d love everyone to get to know our wonderful teachers a little bit better. With that in mind, meet today’s featured instructor, Jared Miller!
How It All Started
Jared has swimming in his blood. At the age of just three years old, Jared entered his very first swimming class after his dad enrolled him in lessons. Encouraged by his older brother’s interest in the sport, Jared continued with those lessons and soon discovered he flourished in the deep end. By age four, he found himself in his first competitive swimming event, which was at the annual Black History Swim Meet.
From Swim Lessons to Life Lessons
Jared believes swimming has impacted numerous aspects of his life. At the most basic level, he’s glad to possess this important and valuable survival skill, but swimming means much more to him than that. Swimming has offered him the ability to make great lifelong friends; to fund most of his college education; and to apply the principles of discipline, hard work, and perseverance to his everyday life.
Teaching the Next Generation of Teachers
Jared is an enthusiastic swim instructor who loves sharing the craft with new swimmers of all ages. When he sees his students progressing in the pool and building on their swimming skills, he feels an incredible sense of giving back to the community. By ensuring this new generation of swimmers is proficient in the pool, he knows he’s played his part in cultivating an important life skill for them.
He feels particularly rewarded when young students tell him they want to be swim instructors just like him! These are the special moments between teacher and student that keep Jared going and let him know he’s doing something right.
Keeping Your Eye on the Prize
Whenever anyone endeavors to get better at something, setting goals is an important part of that improvement process. For Jared, this is one of the most gratifying parts of the job: coming up with creative ways for each unique swimmer to accomplish his or her personal swimming-related goals.
“There’s nothing like seeing swimmers accomplish the tasks they’ve worked hard for,” says Jared.
An Impressive Pedigree
In addition to his skill as a teacher, Jared is a highly decorated swimmer in his own right. He swam for the Howard University swim team, where he left holding nine school records, including for the butterfly, backstroke, and freestyle events.
Over the course of his swimming career, he amassed swimming records at pools across the DMV area, with the most records at Takoma Aquatic Center in northwest Washington, DC. At that pool alone, he holds over forty records, which span from the “eight and under” category to the “fifteen to eighteen” age group.
Outside the Pool
Even though Jared is one of our most dedicated swimming instructors, there are other fascinating facets to his life! When he’s not in the pool, you can usually find him playing guitar, playing football or basketball, or skateboarding. He is also an active member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
Interested in giving back any way he can, Jared runs an annual fund-raiser that benefits the homeless of Washington, DC. The event raises money for warm jackets, water, and food. These donations go directly to people in the harsh winter months, when the homeless of DC need it most. Interested in donating with Jared in 2020? Simply visit this link.
If you’d like to work with Coach Jared or any instructor on our talented team, don’t hesitate to reach out!
